I am a Burmese exile taking a near-permanent refuge in New York and Sydney. Here are my essays about Burma and anything else I feel like writing about. And posting the articles I like from selected sites. Bridging Burma to the world this Blog is more of a Politically-Oriented Literary Blog than a Plain News Blog or a Sophisticated Thoughts Blog.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

At about 1:30 pm on 29 May 2013 more than 40 Muslim men armed
with two swords each came out of Ward-7 the Muslim quarters in Lashio and marched
towards the Seit-ta-thu-kha Buddhist Monastery.

The Muslim men were all stout and good fighting age as if
they were selected and prepared for this occasion. On their way towards the
Buddhist monastery they torched Motorbikes on the streets, destroyed the
Buddhist shops, and burned some Buddhist houses.

And the local Buddhists defending their monastery were
waiting for them. But when the two crowds met and the violent clashes started
the armed-police arrived and tried to separate the two crowds.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

(Translation of news articles from various Burmese blogs on 21 May
2013.)

A burnt-down mosque in Lashio of Northern Shan State.

Lashio the
capital of Northern Shan State has been under dusk-to-dawn curfew (Act-144)
since 8 pm last night (28 May 2013) after violent anti-Muslim race riots broke
out there.

The riots
were triggered by a fiery attack on Aye Aye Win (24), a petrol retailer
(Shan-Buddhist) on Thein-ni Street of 8th Ward in Lashio, by Ne Win
(48) a Muslim (Kalar) traveller from
Kengton’s 2nd ward. Apparently at about 4:15 pm on May 28 a heated argument
broke out between petrol seller Buddhist woman and the Muslim man.

Monday, May 27, 2013

WASHINGTON:
President Thein Sein of Burma, the former general who President Barack Obama
hopes is leading a transition from dictatorship to democracy, is not an
imposing figure. The longer you talk with him, the less imposing he seems.

That,
at least, was my impression after interviewing him for about 45 minutes Sunday,
along with The Washington Post's Anne Gearan.

We tried to find out whether the president
believes the clause the junta inserted into the constitution effectively
barring Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of democracy forces in Burma, from the
presidency should remain in effect:

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Bestselling
Turkish Writer is receiving death threats, after she took her veil off. Famous
Bestselling Turkish Writer is receiving death threats because she decided to
uncover her head.

The
activist, Rabia Kazan, a columnist for 5 years in Ortadoğu Gazetesi, which is a
nationalist Turkish newspaper, and the author of a book titled "Tahran
Melekleri" (Angels of Tehran) in which she reviewed temporary marriage in
Iran, (a sort of legal prostitution) has been receiving serious death threats
from the Fanatic Islamic Community after making her decision to not wear a
headscarf, which she was forced to wear by her mother in her childhood. Having
gone to the Turkish Police Department, Rabia Kazan declared.

"The
headscarf was a decision of my mother and when I uncovered my head, I felt
freedom for the first time in my life."

In
Myanmar Outpost, a Fading Orwellian Link by Jane Perlez. Left is the British
Club in Katha, where male characters of George Orwell's "Burmese Days" lounged and drank tumblers of whiskey and
gin. It now houses offices of a cooperative association.

KATHA,
Myanmar — George Orwell created his first novel, “Burmese Days,” a scathing
portrait of the imperious attitudes of the British, from this former colonial
outpost on the banks of the mighty Irrawaddy River. His brutish characters
swilled too much whiskey at a whites-only club, and wilted in the vaporous
heat. A train that crawled through the jungle from Mandalay provided a lifeline
to the outside world.

Local
aficionados are encouraging the authorities in Myanmar to restore George
Orwell’s house.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Minority
Rohingya Muslims who have long alleged persecution by the Buddhists in Myanmar,
say Buddhist families from Bangladesh are now being resettled on their land.

Buddhist families from Bangladesh are quietly
crossing the border into Myanmar, where local Rakhine Buddhist groups and
government agencies are helping them resettle. The move has created pressure on
the minority Rohingya Muslims, who have long alleged persecution by the
Buddhists to leave.

Muslim
Rohingyas, who are not recognized by the state, allege that the Buddhists and
the Myanmar government are attempting to throw them out of their villages and
take away their land.

“The
Buddhists from Bangladesh are being resettled around Rakhine’s Rohingya
villages to create more pressure on the local minority community,” says
Bangladesh-based Rohingya rights activist Khin Maung Lay.

On
Monday morning, the White House released a vague agenda for this afternoon's
historic bilateral meeting between President Barack Obama and Thein Sein, the
first president of Burma, also known as Myanmar, to visit Washington in almost
50 years. While its release ticks off the major issues -- including democratic
reform, "ethnic tensions," and economic development -- sources tell The
Cable that a contract to operate Burma's Yangon airport will likely be brought
up.

The contract, which involves the renovation
and operation of the former Burmese capital's airport, is worth $1 billion over
30 years and has attracted bids from some of the most powerful corporations in
the world. More importantly, from a geostrategic standpoint, it also pits a
U.S. consortium including giants Boeing and McKinsey against a joint venture
involving the massive Chinese-owned company China Harbour Engineering and
Pioneer Aerodrome Service, a firm connected to Burma's former military regime.

“For the
past two decades, I have been coming to the Senate floor to condemn acts of the
Burmese regime against its own people. And for the past decade, for these
same reasons, I have sponsored legislation to impose sanctions on the Burmese
government. Beginning in 2003, import sanctions have been renewed annually
through the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act (the BFDA). The BFDA was later
enhanced in 2008 through the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act, a measure I
also cosponsored.

“Today,
however, I come to the floor with a different message. After having given the
matter a great deal of thought and review, I do not believe that Congress
should reauthorize the BFDA’s import sanctions. Let me repeat that. I do not
believe the BFDA import ban should be renewed for another year.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

LONDON
(AFP) - British police shot and wounded two men after a man thought to be a
serving soldier was killed outside a London barracks, in an attack Prime
Minister David Cameron called "truly shocking".

In a
dramatic move, the government's emergency response committee was being summoned
following the killing which some eyewitness reports suggested was an attempted
beheading using machete-like knives.

Some
early reports suggested the attack might be Islamist-related, although there
was no official confirmation. The incident took place in broad daylight in a
street around 200 metres (yards) from the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich,
a district of southeast London. Police were called at 2:20 pm (1320 GMT) to
reports of one man being assaulted by two others.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

At the
graduating ceremony of DSA Intake-55 on 8 December 2012 your Excellency the
Vice Senior General yourself said, “Instead
of just doing whatever he desires a good officer must think carefully and
analyse what he should or should not do. He needs to know the exact condition
of his soldiers. And he has to carefully implement the task at hand only after
analysing the problem he is facing and also thinking of the present situation
and possible future outcomes.”

What my
eldest son the army officer had done was exactly same as what you clearly
emphasized in your speech and thus I have to open up and report to you the army
commander-in-chief of the over-the-top punishment imposed upon my son.

HE
allegedly had no problem standing up to police during last year's Muslim riots
- but Mohammed Issai Issaka just couldn't bring himself to stand and show
respect to a Sydney magistrate yesterday.

Appearing
at the Downing Centre Local Court on charges of rioting and assaulting police,
Issaka's case was held up for 30 minutes after he refused to rise to his feet
on the grounds of his "religious beliefs" when magistrate Jacqueline
Milledge entered the courtroom.

Despite berating the 44-year-old for his
"disrespect", Ms Milledge then went out of her way to placate him -
working out a compromise so he could stay in the court. Ms Milledge adjourned
the proceedings for a short time, allowing Issaka to leave the room, before she
reconvened the court. Once she was seated, Issaka returned to the room -
technically standing - as he walked to his seat.

Monday, May 20, 2013

STOCKHOLM
(AP) — Gangs of (Muslim) youth angered by the police shooting death of an
elderly man in a mainly (Muslim) immigrant neighborhood hurled rocks at police
and set cars and buildings on fire in a Stockholm suburb early Monday, forcing
the evacuation of an apartment block.

Around
50 (Muslim) youths were involved in the riots in the suburb of Husby, police
spokesman Lars Bystrom said.

The (Muslim)
youths set light to a parking garage, compelling police to evacuate residents
from an adjacent apartment block, Bystrom said. Residents were allowed to
return home after a couple of hours.

More than
300 still-Burmese and former-Burmese nationals living in the Washington area came
and met their President U Thein Sein at Burmese Embassy in Washington DC on today
May 18.

During his cordial
meeting with Burmese families in Washington DC President Thein Sein explained to
them the current reform process back home in Burma and he also invited all the
Burmese working abroad to come back home and help rebuild their native country.

He also
reminded them of some American sanctions still active against Burma and told
them that the reason for his visit was to urge the United States to end all the
remaining sanctions like infamous Jade Act which bans jades and all gemstones from
Burma.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Last week I was accused of using the
Boston bombings to whip up hysteria about Islam with this post (http://bernardgaynor.com.au/asio-terror/ ). However, you will
find no mention of the Boston bombings anywhere within it.

That is because it was not about
Boston. And I’m sure those ‘average American youths’ have done a good enough
job of raising concerns about Islamic violence by their own hand without anyone
needing to point the finger at me.

Friday, May 17, 2013

The Netherlands, where six per cent of the population is now
Muslim, is scrapping multiculturalism. The Dutch government says it will
abandon the long-standing model of multiculturalism that has encouraged Muslim
immigrants create a parallel society within
the Netherlands.

A new
integration bill, which Dutch Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner presented to
parliament on June 16, reads:

“The
government shares the social dissatisfaction over the multicultural society
model and plans to shift priority to the values of the Dutch people. In the new
integration system, the values of the Dutch society play a central role.” With this
change, the government steps away from the model of a multicultural society.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

(Part of this post is
direct translations of Op-Ed Articles from various Burmese Blogs.)

The 969
Buddhist Revival Movement in Burma is extremely popular among the Burmese
Buddhists, even though bitterly demonised by International media, Islamic
countries, and Burma’s own Muslims as a racist bigotry tethering on the
genocidal context of ruining and driving the Bengali-Muslims out of Burma.

Recently at the US Embassy-sponsored forum titled “Freedom of
Expression” held in the evening of May 8 at the American Centre the US
Ambassador Derek Mitchell launched a thinly-veiled public attack on the 969 Buddhist
Movement for inciting March anti-Muslim violence in Meikhtilar and earlier Islamic
race riots in Arakan State last year.

Monday, May 13, 2013

(Part of this post is direct from the New Strait Times of Islamic
Malaysia.)

100 million US$ worth of Territory for OIC's Islamist Army.

According to
the New Strait Times of Malaysia a
high-ranking official from a major OIC member country (Either Pakistan or Saudi Arabia?), assigned by
the OIC to implement their latest policy of armed-intervention in Burma, secretly
met with SSA’s General Ywet Sit in the Bangkok Embassy of that major OIC
country.

May 9 clandestine
meeting between the OIC delegate and SSA (Shan State Army – A Shan insurgent
and drug trafficking army in Burma) highest-ranking officers was leaked out by Pakistani
diplomatic sources in Malaysia.

The meeting was primarily on offering SSA at least 100
million US$ as first instalment to help OIC establish the Islamic Jihadist Army
of Burma’s so-called Rohingyas or Bengali-Muslims and Muslim Mujahedeen
volunteers from all over the Islamic world in the SSA-controlled territory
bordering Northern Thailand.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

The Muslim Brotherhood is the name of a
world-wide Sunni Islamist movement, which has spawned several religious and
political organizations in the Middle East, including Hamas and Palestinian
Islamic Jihad, dedicated to the jihadi credo:

“God is our objective, the Quran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our
leader, struggle is our way, and death for the sake of God is the highest of
our aspirations.”

It should be noted that al Qaeda’s
number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, joined the Muslim Brotherhood at age fourteen. It
should also be noted that the Muslim Brotherhood was responsible for the
assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Is a
Decorated Combat Vet’s Career Being Sacrificed on the Altar of Political
Correctness?
By Harold Hutchison From the May 2013 issue of SOF

A CAREER IS HALTED

Lieutenant
Colonel Matthew Dooley was a rising star, according to his officer evaluation
reports (OERs) going back to 2008. Yet instead, his career now lies in limbo.
How that happened raises very disturbing questions about the state of
professional military education.

Friday, May 10, 2013

A MAGISTRATE handing a chief offender
in last year's Muslim riots a four-year jail term says if it was possible she
would have sentenced him for longer.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Jane Culver
yesterday made the comments while sentencing father-of-one Mahmoud Eid, 26, to
at least 33 months in jail with a total term of just over four years over the
ugly September 15 riots in which he kicked a police dog and pushed over a
policewoman.

The Punchbowl plumber, who was charged
with rioting, assaulting police and animal cruelty, was found to have played an
active part in every violent clash with police during the protests. His actions
were caught on various footage of the riot.

He handed himself in two days after
being exposed in the media for his actions, which included pushing over a
female constable, kicking police dog "Chuck" in the ribs and hitting
an officer's riot shield.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

This is one
of the success stories of our 969 Movement’s various rescues of young
Burmese-Buddhist girls from the gripping hands of rich Muslim
paedophile-rapists all over Burma. This case involves a 14 year-old
Burmese-Buddhist girl and her tormentor a 42 year-old Bengali-Muslim kalar both
from the South-Oakalarpa township of Rangoon.

It began on
18 March this year. That day at about 6:30 in the evening one patriotic Burmese
taxi-driver Aung Aung Oo picked up a really odd couple from the bus stop at
South-Oakalarpa Post Office.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Just last
month of April alone more than 800 Buddhist people belonging to the ethnic Yakhines
living hundreds and hundreds of years in the Chittaging Hill Tracts region in Islamic
Bangladesh have fled into Burma.

All together
173 families of 800 Yakhine Buddhists have entered the Maungdaw District after
fleeing from the brutal religious and racial persecution in Bangladesh.

The more than 60-years long Islamic genocide of Buddhists
in Bangladesh has been quietly going on in Chittagong Hills while the Muslim-funded
and controlled International media like Al-jazebra has been relentlessly loudmouthing
the highly-exaggerated and false news about the Buddhist persecution of Muslims
in Burma.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

On 9 May 2012 a minor
indigenous Jumma girl named Ms Sujata Chakma (11 years), daughter of late Mr.
Jyotish Chandra Chakma and Ms. Mongala Devi Chakma of Ultachari mouza area of
Atarakchara union under Longadu upazila in Rangamati hill district was allegedly
killed after rape by a Bengali settler.

The victim was a student of class 4 of
Ultachari Government Primary School. The girl was brutally killed by chopping
on the neck with sharp weapon.

It is learnt that the
incident happened around 2.30 pm on that day, when Sujata Chakma along with her
nephew (5 year old) named Triratna Chakma was grazing cows half a kilometer
from the village. According to Triranta
Chakma’s statement, a bearded Bengali man came and forcibly took Sujata away
towards upward of Sadachara. She then ran to the village to give the news.

Islamic terrorists in
Indonesia have a new target after militant godfather Abu Bakar Bashir
threatened holy war against the Buddhists of Myanmar.

Just hours after the
threat was reported on radical site Voice of al-Islam on Thursday, two men were
arrested carrying pipe bombs on their way to the Myanmar embassy in central
Jakarta.

The report quoted Mr
Bashir, who motivated the Bali bombers in 2002, saying Myanmar was conducting
genocide against Rohingya Muslims in the Arakan state in the country's west,
and that jihad was the only solution.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

This is the feel-good story about a significant
Burmese-Buddhist event in Thailand. The event was held on yesterday May 1 in
Mahachai town, well known as another Little Burma in Thailand, about one hour
train ride from Bangkok.

And the Buddhist event was managed by extremely popular 969
Buddhist movement now spreading all over Burma and also to other Buddhist
countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and even to faraway Sri Lanka, I
have been informed.

The event was basically the night-long deliverance of
Buddhist sermons in Burmese language by Burmese-Buddhist monks from both Burma
and Thailand. The event was held in the spacious Khone-khu-thai Monastery in
Mahachai.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Oak-kan a
small town about 40 miles north from Rangoon, on the Rangoon-Prome highway, was the latest scene of now very frequent occurrences of destruction of mosques and Muslim
properties in restless Buddhist-Burma.

The negligible bicycle accident on yesterday 30th April between a Muslim woman and a very
young Buddhist novice turned into an ugly anti-Muslim race riots in which the main mosque
of the town and about 20 shops owned by town Muslims were destroyed by a
Buddhist mob hell bent on driving the much-hated Bengali-Muslims out of their Burmese-Buddhist
town.